Need Help Mastering The Mojave

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DwayneGAnd

Look, Ma! Two Heads!
I have only beaten this game three times in the past. The first two used pistols only, the first one used guns, the second used energy weapons, and the third used heavy weapons.

I have the following builds planned:

Cowboy: Uses weapons affected by Cowboy, including ranged, melee, and explosives.

Grunt: Uses weapons affected by Grunt, including ranged, some melee, and explosives.

Guns: specializes in guns.

Energy Weapons: Uses either laser or plasma energy weapons.

Pyromaniac: Uses weapons affected by pyromaniac, including ranged and melee.

Brawler: Uses unarmed weapons.

Melee: Uses melee weapons that have good critical damage.

Heavy Handed: Uses melee and unarmed with high damage, but low critical damage. Uses heavy handed.

Heavyweight: Uses explosives and other weapons that deal no critical damage including the Shoulder Mounted SMG.

Wild Wastelander: Takes wild wasteland for a unique gameplay experience.

I have the same problems as I do with fallout 3 as I frequently find myself in situations where I am overwhelmed by an impossible situation such as going up against enemies too powerful for me to take down.

During one playthrough, I was in Honest Hearts, but couldn't deal good damage against giant radscorpions. In another, I could barely penetrate the armor of the robots in the sacrificial chamber. And in another, I couldn't take down the hostile rogue BoS paladins in the followers base at the conclusion of Veronica's quest I Could Make You Care.

I also frequently found myself having to drink to eat something just so I would no longer be overencumbered.

I have yet to play on hardcore mode.

I have questions I need answered to help make gameplay difficulties easier. How should I set my stats? What traits are recommended and which are best avoided? Is it worth maxing certain traits endgame? What is the best way to use your companions and manage their equipment? How can I avoid running into situations that are too difficult to handle? When should I start making enemies of either the Legion or NCR?
 
DwayneGAnd said:
When should I start making enemies of either the Legion or NCR?
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With the Legion, you can obtain a ceasefire from them (if your rep with them is in the negative) after dealing with Benny. Upon leaving the Tops, Vulpes (or some other Legion Frumentarii IIRC) will give you the Mark of Caesar that grants you safe passage to Caesar's territories in-game.

Just don't bring Boone with you since he is always hostile to Legion NPCs and will trigger combat.

Also, do your best to keep your questions on NV in this thread. You are doing well now based on your Fallout 1 & 2 general thread (though I'd recommend figuring out all these builds by testing them out personally).

EDIT: IIRC NCR gets a similar ceasefire as well though I may be wrong.
 
CerberusGate said:
With the Legion, you can obtain a ceasefire from them (if your rep with them is in the negative) after dealing with Benny. Upon leaving the Tops, Vulpes (or some other Legion Frumentarii IIRC) will give you the Mark of Caesar that grants you safe passage to Caesar's territories in-game.

Just don't bring Boone with you since he is always hostile to Legion NPCs and will trigger combat.

Also, do your best to keep your questions on NV in this thread. You are doing well now based on your Fallout 1 & 2 general thread (though I'd recommend figuring out all these builds by testing them out personally).

EDIT: IIRC NCR gets a similar ceasefire as well though I may be wrong.
Click to expand...
After leaving the Tops for the first time an NCR rep and a Legion rep will come to you and both will forgive and forget all the shit you done to them.
Just be careful later on. I did some Legion missions once, planning to just see where this goes but finishing with NCR, but then I did one mission too much by accident (I was told that Legion spies are everywhere, but I just wanted to talk to Caesar which finished one last quest that got me branded as terrorist witht he NCR).
 
I recently started a guns build. He will be using light armor. So far I have taken the following perks:

Confirmed Bachelor, Educated, Lady Killer, Light Touch, Toughness (2)

I plan to take Tunnel Runner, Living Anatomy, Bloody Mess, Hand Loader, Finesse, Grim Reaper's Sprint, Jury Rigging, Silent Running, Better Criticals, Nerves of Steel, Strong Back, Travel Light, and Just Lucky I'm Alive.

I'm also considering taking both Shotgun Surgeon and And Stay Back. As of the time I'm writing this, I'm on level 13, wearing reinforced leather armor, first recon beret, and using the service rifle and the weathered 10mm pistol. Since I'm focusing mainly on using guns for combat, I'm not touching any of the other combat skills, save for explosives to pass the various checks in dialogue.

Since my endgame strength will be 7, here are some of the endgame weapons I'm considering using. I won't be using them all due to carry weight issues.

Riot Shotgun or Dinner Bell
Assault Carbine or 12.7mm SMG
5.56mm Pistol or 12.7mm Pistol
This Machine
Christine's CoS Silencer Rifle

My endgame armor will be Ulysses' Duster and First Recon Beret with the Lucky Shades.

My starting stats were:

S-5
P-5
E-5
C-5
I-7
A-6
L-7

Skilled and Small Frame were my chosen traits. Later, I'll change the skilled trait to Built To Destroy.

Already I have taken the perception and intelligence implants. I plan to get the luck and agility implants together with the dermal plating.

This will be my endgame stats:

S-7 (reinforced spine)
P-7 (implant and first recon beret)
E-5
C-5
I-8(implant)
A-8(implant and small frame)
L-10(implant, lucky shades, and stat point from completing lonesome road)

Already I have Veronica and Ed-e as my companions. I'm about to start I Could Make You Care.

What I would like is advice on how I'm doing so far and what I can do to make this character as powerful as can be to take down the strongest opposition easily.
 
I just beat the game with the character above. My endgame weapons were the Riot Shotgun, 12.7mm Pistol, 12.7mm SMG, Christine's CoS Silencer Rifle, and the Shoulder Mounted SMG. My endgame armor was Ulysses Duster, First Recon Beret, and Lucky Shades.

But even though I've beaten the game, I have to admit that even at certain parts I had difficulty with and even the final climax of the game was a bit of a challenge. So I find myself wondering if I had done something wrong or if he could have been made better.
 
I just recently heard that there are two kinds of builds: critical and stealth. Stealth builds focus on killing in sneak mode where every hit while hidden is a critical hit, which makes finesse and items increasing critical chance pointless, as does raising luck higher than needed for better criticals. Critical builds get their critical chance as high as they can, with no need for stealth.

Maybe that's one thing I did wrong, taking silent running for my build even though he had had critical hit chance. Also, there's other ways of increasing critical hit chance such as reading True Police Stories with comprehension and the Fight the Power perk.

In my opinion, the best armors for a stealth build are the Assassin Suit, Courier Dusters, and the Stealth Armor Mk II (though the fact that the med-x's are addictive can be a problem) and the best helm would probably be the elite riot gear helm for the sneak sight and bonus to perception.

Now for critical builds, what I would like to know is exactly how much luck do you need or if it even needs to be maxed. A lot of very good weapons only have a critical hit modifier of only 1 or less. A lot of weapons affected by either cowboy or grunt have a low modifier.

Also, I have the YUP unofficial patch and learned that you cannot wear the first recon beret under any riot gear helm, which does make the elite riot gear path have less critical chance than the light touch path which uses Ulysses' Duster and First Recon Beret. Then there's the 5% flat modifier added by Light Touch which makes all automatic weapons more likely to score critical hits, so I'm guessing that automatic weapons are reccommended for a light touch build, but not an elite riot gear build.

With 10 luck, finesse, fight the power, built to destroy, and true police stories with comprehension, you get a maximum of 38% for the elite riot gear if you make your attacks in Vats against the Legion, NCR, or Brotherhood of Steel, and 33% against all other targets. Add an additional 5% for the light touch build(with the first recon beret) and you get a total maximum of 43% against the Legion, NCR, Brotherhood of Steel, and 38% against all other targets. Multiply with the weapon's critical modifier, then add 5% if using light touch. If specializing in lasers, add 10% for Laser Commander. Add 4% if you have Set Lasers For Fun.

If you don't bother with built to destroy, fight the power, or true police stories with comprehension, you only get a total of 21% with light touch builds and 16% with elite riot gear.

So I have come to the following conclusions:

Cowboy/Grunt: You probably don't need max luck because most weapons affected by these perks has 1x or less. The Light Machine Gun, Assault Carbine, and .45 Auto SMG have very low critical hit chance, so use a light touch build if you use one of them. If not using any of them, use Elite Riot Gear. For crowd contro, use grenade launchers as a grunt or dynamite as a cowboy.

Light Touch: Automatic weapons work best when used with this build. With the bonus from Light Touch after calculating critical chance, you can afford to use weapons with low critical chance and still have a reasonable chance to critical hit due to the rapid fire. You probably won't need built to destroy, fight the power, max luck, or true police stories even without comprehension. Use a single shot weapon with a critical chance of 1x if you are using an automatic. The same applies if going melee or unarmed. If using Guns instead of energy weapons and your automatic weapon can chamber AP bullets, use a pistol or rifle depending on which is more powerful, otherwise use a shotgun. If not using automatic weapons, take your critical hit chance as high as you can and use weapons with a higher critical chance modifier. But remember that weapons with a multiplier of more than 2x will end up giving you a total of more than 100% which will feel like a waste if you raise your critical chance very high. When using an explosive weapon for crowd control or tough battles, choose the one that your strength allows.

Elite Riot Gear: Weapons with a weapon modifier of 2 to 2.5 work best if you choose to get your critical chance as high as you can. With the maximum 38%, using a weapon with 2.5% modifier with give you 95%. Add another 5% from VATS to get a critical hit with every attack. If using guns instead of energy weapons, if your primary high critical chance weapon can chamber AP rounds, use a pistol or rifle depending on which is stronger, otherwise use a shotgun. When using an explosive weapon for crowd control or tough battles, choose the one that your strength allows. If going melee or unarmed, choose weapons with low critical chance if not trying to get high critical chance, and choose high critical chance weapons if you want more criticals.

Assassin: If using the Courier Duster or Assassin Suit, take tunnel runner for the increased sneaking speed. You can go with either long range or melee with this type of build. If you choose long range, you'll want a scoped weapon for long ranged sniping, and weapons that are affected by the Professional Perk to increase your stealth critical damage work best when you need to get closer, but not in melee range. For crowd control, use grenades are the explosives of choice to not give away your position. If making a cowboy, use Blood Nap for melee range, guns for longer range, and dynamite for crowd control. For grunts, use Chance's Knife in melee, guns for longer range, and frag grenades for crowd control instead of the grenade launcher.
 
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It seems there's a flaw in the plan above. I checked the tables for the weapons online on the fallout wikia and apparently many weapons, particularily the automatic weapons have very low critical hit damage. So if I make a build which primarily uses those weapons, then I don't need a high critical hit chance. In other words, I won't need high luck, finesse, equipment that increases critical hit chance, or even better criticals.

Therefore, my new conclusions are:

Light Touch Builds are most powerful when specializing in the usage of laser weapons, combined with Laser Commander and Set Lasers For Fun. They also have the highest chance of critical hits when using weapons with 2X critical modifiers and using VATS which gives a total chance of 96%. Is using weapons with 2.5X, you will get over 100% which feels like a waste, so take your luck up enough to get Better Criticals, don't bother with Built To Destroy, and use VATS to get an even 100%. With the exception of Embrace of the Mantis King(3x) and Two Step Goodbye(4x), none of the other weapons with very high critical chance are worth using. If using Mantis King's Embrace, you don't need to read true detective stories to get 100%, just max your luck, and attack in VATS. Two Step Goodbye has very low critical damage, but causes an explosion on kills dealt by critical hits which is great for crowd control. However, it is better only as a secondary weapon, not a primary weapon.

Elite Riot Gear is best used with weapons with a critical hit modifier of 2X or 2.5X. If taking all the critical hit chance perks, maxed luck, and using vats, you get 100% critical chance with 2.5X. If using 2X and VATS, you'll get a max of only 86%.

Low Critical: For these builds, you can dump luck, and forget about finesse and better criticals as you won't be depending on critical hits. Use weapons that deal pure damage and low critical hit damage such as automatic weapons and shotguns. Great choices of weapons are the heavy automatic weapons, flamers, and any other rapid fire weapons with low damage.

Assassins: Since you'll be dealing all damage from stealth, all hits are critical as long as you remain hidden. Don't bother with finesse, built to destroy, true police stories, fight the power, and raise your luck only enough for better criticals. The Profession perk is great for increasing sneak critical damage.

Next post, I'll be writing down great weapon combinations for all builds.
 
I had a brainstorm last night. While looking at the tables on fallout wikia for weapons, some weapons have good damage, critical hance, and critical damage. Others deal good damage but either only good critical damage and poor critical chance, or low critical chance and poor critical damage.

Therefore, there are three different kinds of builds I believe exist. It all has something to do with weapon damage, criticals, and critical damage. I asked myself two questions concerning all weapons dealing high damage:

1.Does the weapon deal good critical damage?
2.Does the weapon have a good critical hit chance such as 2X or higher?

If the answer to both question is yes, the weapon works best in a critical build. In other words, raise critical chance as high as you can. Built To Destroy, Comprehension with True Police Stories, Fight the Power, Max Luck, Finesse, VATS, and either Ulysses' Duster with First Recon Beret or Elite Riot Gear. If taking the duster, get Light Touch. With Ulysses' Duster, you get 43% and 38% with Elite Riot Gear. Add 5% for VATS and 5% with Light Touch together with 10% for Laser Commander and 4% for Set Lasers For Fun. If your final calculations are more than 100%, make a few changes to luck stat or remove comprehension and other additions to get as close as you can without going over 100% otherwise it will feel like a waste. Good weapons are Paciencia, L'il Devil, Embrace of the Mantis King, Nuka Breaker, Protonic Inversal Axe, Fist of Rawr, Fist of North Rawr, Alien Blaster, Pew Pew, Q-35 Matter Modulator, Christine's CoS Silencer Rifle, Gobie Campaign Scout Rifle, Elijah's Jusry Rigged Tesla Cannon, YCS/186, AER14 Prototype, and Old World Glory.

If the answers are yes and no respectively, then you need to choose between damage or critical damage. If you choose damage, pick perks and traits that increase your damage such as Bloody Mess, Heavy Handed, Thought You Died, the gender dialogues, Sneering Imperialist, Robotic's Expert, and Entomologist, all the while forgetting about perks that increase critical damge. If you choose critical damage, make it a stealth build where all your hits become critical hits and doubling damage for long range or quadrupling for melee, get silent running, better criticals, and Just Lucky I'm Alive. Also get The Professional to increase damage of sneak attack criticals. For both builds, forget about raising critical chance. With the stealth build, you only need enough perception and luck to get better criticals. Great weapons for stealth builds are 12.7mm Pistol, 12.7mm SMG, Anti-materiel Rifle, Sonic Emitter, Plasma Defender, Laser RCW, A Light Shining In Darkness, .45 Auto SMG, Holorifle, Blood Nap, Chance's Knife, Ballistic Fist, Pushy, and Industrial Hand. Some of these weapons are also great for the damage build, all depending on damage. Other good weapons for either category are Medicine Stick, Hunting Revolver, Ranger Sequoia, Mysterious Magnum, Survivalist's Rifle, Marksman Carbine, Light Machine Gun, Saturnite Fist Superheated, Gehenna, Plasma Caster, Smitty Special, Multiplas Rifle, All American, and This Machine.

If the answers to both are no, or no and yes, then make a damage build. Forget about critical chance from stats, items, and equipment, and choose perks and traits to raise damage. Good weapons are CZ57 Avenger, FIDO, K9000 Cyberdog Gun, Shoulder Mounted Machine Gun, all shotguns (most notably the Riot, Lever Action, and Dinner Bell) Cleansing Flame, Heavy Incinerator, Sprtel Wood 9700, LAER, Thermic Lance, Two Step Goodbye, and all explosives.

The best armor all depends on what kind of build you are making. For pure damage builds, take either Desert Ranger Combat Armor or T-51b Power Armor. For Stealth builds, take either the Courier Duster or the Stealth Suit MK II, both with the Elite Riot Gear Helmet. Be sure to take Tunnel Runner, Travel Light, and Toughness is taking the light armor route. For critical builds, take either Ulysses's Duster and First Recon Beret with Lucky Shades if necessary, or the Elite Riot Gear with Elite Riot Gear Helmet.

Concerning Stats set at the beginning of the game.

Damage

S-max 8 (depending on chosen weapon)
P-lower scale
E-minumum of 5
C-varies
I-varies
A-varies (enough for rapid reload perhaps)
L-dump

Stealth

S-max 6
P-min 5
E-min 5
C-varies
I-varies
A-max 8
L-max 6

Critical

S-max 6
P-min 5
E-min 5
C-varies
I-varies
A-max 7
L-max 9

Now I feel like I'm truly ready to master to mojave starting with my next character.
 
As I could for Fallout 3, I found I could combine certain builds with others. For example, my Demolitionist build had enough perks left over to merge with either a shotgun build, a heavy handed build, or a heavy weapon low critical build. The stealth builds will also take the ninja perk and use a melee weapon. Critical Build Characters made for Long Range will use unarmed or melee and vice versa, though there won't be enough perks left for either to get perks to strengthen the secondary combat skill.

Also, I find myself wondering if the melee stealth builds need piercing strike, slayer, super slam, paralyzing palm, or unstoppable force, if they are even necessary. I would hate to waste perk slots.
 
I've got four different combat builds planned. Grunt, Cowboy, Guns, and Energy Weapons. All builds will use melee, ranged, and explosive weapons for versatility. I believe there is no point to making a pure melee only build because too much of the opposition is armed with ranged weapons and can sometimes be out of reach in hard to reach places. For each build, I wrote down the best weapons to choose from from either guns or energy weapons, melee, unarmed, and explosives. I also jotted down the best armor choices depending on how I build the character, whether as a stealth, critical, or damage build. Other information listed are possible traits to choose from, how high or low the stats should be set, a list of mandatory perks that must be taken, and finally, a large list of perks to choose from to customize the character build to what I want. Each combat style also comes with a list of names for each faction and whether the character is male or female.
 
Here are the builds I am planning together with the best choices of weapons in my opinion. Of course, due to carry weight issues, not all will be used at once.

Critical builds focus on maxing their chance to make a critical hit using equipment and weapons with a high chance of critical hits. Critical/Stealth builds can be used for either stealth kills or non-stealth, but not both, they will only raise luck enough to get Better Criticals. Professional Assassins kill from stealth and take The Professional to further increase the damage of their sneak attack criticals. Non-Critical builds focus on causing as much damage as possible without relying on criticals.

Cowboy Critical/Stealth - Medicine Stick, Hunting Revolver, Ranger Sequoia, Blood Nap
Cowboy Professional Assassin - Blood Nap, Ranger Sequoia, Hunting Revolver
Cowboy Non-Critical - Lever Action Shotgun
Grunt Critical/Stealth - Chance's Knife, Survivalist's Rifle, All American, Marksman Carbine, A Light Shining In Darkness
Grunt Professional Assassin - Chance's Knife, A Light Shining In Darkness, .45 Auto SMG
Grunt Non-Critical - Grenade Launcher, Light Machinegun, .45 Auto SMG
Guns High Critical - Paciencia, Christine's CoS Silencer Rifle, Gobi Campaign Scout Rifle, L'il Devil
Guns Critical/Stealth - This Machine, Anti-materiel Rifle, 12.7mm Pistol
Guns Professional Assassin - 12.7mm Pistol, L'il Devil, 12.7mm SMG
Guns Non-Critical - Riot Shotgun, Dinner Bell, CZ57 Avenger, FIDO, K9000 Cyberdog
Energy Weapons Critical - Pew Pew, MF Hyperbreeder Alpha, Alien Blaster, YCS/186, AER14 Prototype, Q-35 Matter Modulator
Energy Weapons Critical/Stealth - Alien Blaster, Plasma Defender, Pew Pew, YCS/186, Plasma Caster
Energy Weapons Professional Assassin - Laser RCW, Alien Blaster, Plasma Defender, Pew Pew, Sonic Emmitter
Energy Weapons Non-Critical - Sprtel Wood 9700, Gatling Laser, Smitty Special, Cleansing Flame, LAER

For the Non-Critical Builds, melee weapons will be those that deal high damage but low critical damage such as the Thermic Lance, Chainsaw, or Two Step Goodbye. Maybe taking Heavy Handed will be a good idea?

For other builds, the melee or unarmed weapon of choice depends on whether it is a high critical build or a critical/stealth one. Industrial, Old World Glory, Nuka Breaker, Protonic Inversal Axe, Oh Baby, Pushy, or Ballistic Fist.

The Explosive weapon of choice depends on whether or not I meet the strength requirement endgame. Annabelle or Mercy are the ideal choices due to high damage. For non-critical builds, perks will be used to increase their damage and effectiveness.

The armor of choice for the critical builds will be either Elite Riot Gear or Ullysses Duster depending on whether or not I took Light Touch, used together with the First Recon Beret. For stealth or professional assassin builds, the armor will be either courier duster or Stealth Suit Mk II, it all depends on whether or not I take Travel Light and Tunnel Runner, used with the Elite Riot Gear Helmet. For the non-critical builds, I will use either the Desert Ranger Combat Armor or T51b Power Armor, it all depends on whether or not I need an extra point of strength.
 
From my recent successful completion of Fallout 3's main quest and maxing out the majority of the skills, including all six weapon skills, I was wondering if I should be doing the same in New Vegas with guns, energy weapons, melee weapons, unarmed, and explosives.

Also from previous gameplay experiences with New Vegas, most of the DLC's force you to rely on Guns to get through easily. Only Old World Blues has a surplus of energy weapons. So I've been wondering if it would be a good idea to ultimately use both guns and energy weapons despite what some people and online guides say about sticking with only one. If all skills can be maxed by level 50 if I have enough skill points from leveling up and reading skill books, is this a good strategy.

I've been pondering about some of the builds I have planned above if this strategy is used. What's the point of using the Cowboy or Grunt perk if my endgame arsenal does not use only weapons affected by either perk? Or what's the point of taking pyromaniac if not every weapon I use deals fire damage. In the GOTY edition of Fallout 3, there weren't very many good perks to choose from added by Broken Steel. Whereas in New Vegas, there are perks that actually benefit energy weapons. The only perks that benefit guns are the hand loader perk and both shotgun perks, yet shotguns deal poor critical damage according to the Fallout wikia site.

What experience do other people in New Vegas have with maxing out all their skills? How should I build my character in terms of perks if I apply the same strategy I used in Fallout 3 to New Vegas?
 
Okay, I've got a total of six archetypes of builds.

Cowboy - Uses weapons strengthened by the Cowboy Perk
Grunt - Same, but for weapons affected by the Grunt Perk
Guns - Uses guns
Energy Weapons - Uses energy weapons
Pyromaniac - uses weapons affected by the pyromaniac perk
Demolitionist - uses explosives

The pyromaniac and demolitionist builds are primarily low critical due to the weapons they use being unable to deal critical hits, or dealing very little critical damage.

The other four builds can be developed as either critical, stealth, or low critical.

Low critical builds focus on using weapons that deal heavy damage but either have very little chance of dealing critical hits or deal poor critical damage, instead focus on raising damage as high as possible. Critical builds use weapons that deal good critical damage, have good critical chance, or both. Stealth builds attack from stealth to inflict sneak attack criticals.

For critical builds, whether or not luck is maxed depends on the critical modifier on end-game weapons. Either it will be maxed endgame, or raised to a maximum of six to get better criticals. If I make a stealth build, I can also choose to take The Professional to increase damage of sneak attack criticals as much as possible with certain weapons.

Okay, now I think I'm ready to begin mastering the Mojave.
 
I just beat the game with a heavy weapons character. His endgame armor was T-51b Power Armor along with the helmet and his endgame weapon was the CZ57 Avenger minigun.

One thing I have learned is that I think I pick up too much crafting materials. Even though I had taken both Strong Back and Burden To Bear, together with Pack Rat, I still found myself overencumbered often. So I limited myself to using only one weapon late game and stored away much of my crafting materials. This, even when playing on casual mode.

Still, other than that, this was probably my very first truly successful build. I took down all opposition including the deathclaws at the deathclaw promitory, and even the legendary deathclaw. Of course, I think I could have raised my agility and perception a little higher since agility at the start was set at 5 and perception set at 4. Next time I build this character, I'll take those points out of luck and put them elsewhere since I had started out with 4, seeing as how I couldn't think of another place to put those points.

I also recruited all companions during the game, though often I ended up dismissing them after completing their quests. Apparently, it would be much more reasonable to only recruit and develop a few since you can only take a maximum of two with you so you need to choose which two are most important for your build.

These are my reccomendations:

Ed-E: For energy weapon users who specialize in lasers due to the fourth rank of his special perk from lonesome road.
Rex: His melee attack makes him suitable for long range builds that need melee support.
Veronica: Same with Rex.
Boone: Spotter isn't very useful, but his excellent long range makes him great for builds where you don't have very long range attacks such as melee, unarmed, or with flamethrowers.
Lily: The bonus to damage of stealth criticals makes her the best choice for stealth builds.
Raul: Good for weapons that decay quickly.
Cass: Whiskey Rose, which increases DT when drinking alcohol makes her ideal for light touch builds or any other character who focuses on frontal assaults, thus taking more hits.

Since Arcade doesn't actually fight alongside you at the end of the game and his perk only increases healing of all health items, he's not really worth a place in any build endgame.

There, now I feel like I have mastered the mojave.
 
Here is the final list of builds I have planned:

Light Touch: This build focuses on using light armor and takes the Light Touch perk to give an extra bonus to critical chance. Travel Light and both ranks of toughness are mandatory for increased speed and increased damage threshhold to make up for the low amount you have due to using light armor. Can be built as a cowboy, grunt, guns, energy weapons, melee, or unarmed variant. Can also specialize in V.A.T.S if you choose. Cass and ED-E are the best choices of companions due to the bonuses you get to Damage Threshold from one rank of ED-E's lonesome road perk whatever it's called and Cass's whiskey rose perk. Carry a good supply of whiskey and wasteland tequila for this purpose. If not built to specialize in V.A.T.S, get Fast Shot and either Small Frame or Built to Destroy depending on how high the critical chance of your weapon is.

Elite: Uses Elite Riot Gear. Due to not using light touch or travel light, more perk slots are available. Can also be made as either a cowboy, grunt, guns, energy weapons sharpshooter, melee, or unarmed variant. Has a slightly lower chance of critical chance due to not using Light Touch. If built as a shooter, you'll want some melee support. Take Rex and either Veronica or Lily. Whichever human companion you choose depends on whether or not you have enough reputation with the brotherhood after destroying their bunker if the quest you follow requires. If built as a melee character, have ranged support. ED-E and either Boone or Raul are your best choices. Again, your humanoid companion depends on which faction you side with end game. Use Boone if siding with NCR. Otherwise use Raul. If you use laser weapons, use ED-E instead of Rex if you are a shooter. Again, your traits if not specializing in V.A.T.S can be Fast Shot and either Small Frame or Built To Destroy.

V.A.T.S Specialist: Specializes in using V.A.T.S heavily. Due to the bonus you get with critical chance in V.A.T.S, this build has the highest chance of critical hits. You'll want to take perks that increase your performance in V.A.T.S as well as action point perks. Fast Shot decreases AP costs and Kamikaze can give you a bonus to your AP. Your companions depend on whether or not you take Light Touch and if you are a shooter or a melee fighter.

Assassin: Attacks from stealth. Light armor is best as it has no sneak penalty, even with silent running. Travel light and Tunnel Runner increase your speed. If you want to use revolvers, smg's, or pistols, take the Professional to increase sneak attack damage. Lily is the best choice of humanoid companion due to the bonus you get to sneak attack critical damage. You can build this variant as a cowboy, grunt, guns, energy weapons, unarmed, or melee specialist.

High Damage: This build does not depend on critical hits to deal damage as the weapons you use either deal very little critical damage, have a very small critical hit chance, or cannot deal critical hits. These weapons include rapid fire weapons, autostrike melee weapons, shotguns, explosives, and several other weapons such as the LAER and Two Step Goodbye. You'll want to wear T-51b Power Armor which is the best armor in the game if you do not rely on critical hits. Since the majority of weapons here have a high decay rate, you'll want to use Raul and ED-E. Raul can slow the decay of your equipment, and ED-E can repair your weapon once a day. If specializing in explosives, either don't bother with companions and dump charisma, or get the Spray and Pray perk and get some ranged support. Depending on whether you are built as a shooter or a melee character, the traits you take vary endgame. With a melee character, take heavy handed. With a shooter, take trigger discipline due to many of the weapons having high spread. If using explosives, you can get hoarder or loose cannon. Unlight other builds where your final perk is Just Lucky I'm Alive to increase critical damage, here you'll want Thought You Died for the increase to damage.
 
Now I just have some final questions for anyone to answer. I'll post them here rather than start a new thread since I'm still on topic.

-How soon should I first arrive at the Strip?
-When can I start straying from the highway which is safe according to Sunny Smiles?
-When should I start playing the DLC's? In what order?
-When should side quests be done?
-Which are the harder sidequests and when should I attempt them?
-When should I focus on completing the quest for my current companions?
-When should each companion be recruited?
-When should I start making enemies of either the Legion or NCR?
-When should I start following the questlines of my chosen faction?
 
DwayneGAnd said:
Now I just have some final questions for anyone to answer. I'll post them here rather than start a new thread since I'm still on topic.

-How soon should I first arrive at the Strip?
-When can I start straying from the highway which is safe according to Sunny Smiles?
-When should I start playing the DLC's? In what order?
-When should side quests be done?
-Which are the harder sidequests and when should I attempt them?
-When should I focus on completing the quest for my current companions?
-When should each companion be recruited?
-When should I start making enemies of either the Legion or NCR?
-When should I start following the questlines of my chosen faction?
Click to expand...

-Arrive whenever you want.
- Just don't head North towards Sloan or north of Goodsprings.
-Lonesome Road last, Honest Hearts first and either Dead Money or Old World Blues in 2 or 3 because they reference eachother.
-You can do side quests whenever that's the beauty about Fallout dont feel inclined to follow the main story straight to the end.
-Typically the harder side quests are related to the NCR and Legion so it depends on your choice of faction.
-Whenever you want depending on if you want there perk bonuses and additional abilities faster.
-You can get ED-E relatively early in the game so he should be first then either Boone or Veronica. The rest don't necessarily dont need to be in any order.
-You can start as early as you want because it becomes unimportant until you reach a certain part of the main storyline.
-You start after you confront Benny and the Tops but you can also do the factions side quests as early as you want.
 
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I've had a total rethink of some details of the builds I have planned. Some factors leave me wondering if the ideas can be improved.

For example, is there any point in making a critical build if my endgame weapon has a critical chance modifier of only 1, 1.5, or less than 1? Is there any point in maxing my critical chance through luck, equipment, perks, and traits if I'm making a cowboy using the Medicine Stick endgame? Or a grunt using survivalist's rifle? Or a gun sharpshooter using the anti-materiel rifle? If my endgame weapon has a critical chance modifier of only about 1, is there any point in getting Better Criticals, Built To Destroy, Finesse, Just Lucky I'm Alive, or reading True Police Stories bolstered with Comprehension?

And what of weapons such as shotguns, miniguns, or automatic striking melee weapons such as the thermic lance? These weapons either deal very little critical damage or have a very low critical hit chance multiplier. According to the page on the Fallout wikia, crit % increases are somewhat under-valued for characters using multi-shot weapons. I'm starting to wonder if Thought You Died should be swapped for Ain't Like That Now.

If Fast Shot is one of my traits endgame, should I take Ain't Like That Now to go with it? Certain weapons according to the weapons table have a low attack per second rate and even if both Fast Shot and Ain't Like That Now are taken, the increase to attack speed is marginal. For example, the Hunting Revolver only gains 0.6 attacks per second if both are taken.

Somebody help me out here with these problems.
 
I've been trying to optimize my heavy handed melee build to use with Vicious Wastes (great mod for NV veterans btw) for a bit. Still trying to work out the logistics of getting meat of champions while low level but besides that I haven't had many problems. Let me know what you guys think:

S: 7
P: 2
E: 9
C: 2
I: 9
A: 8
L: 3

Traits: Four Eyes and Early Bird, then switching them out for Heavy Handed and Hot Blooded in OWB after getting banned from all the casinos

Perks: Lady Killer, Rad Child, Cannibal, Stonewall, Travel Light, Toughness x2, Piercing Strike, Solar Powered, Slayer, Atomic!, Ain't Like That Now

Special Perks: Meat of Champions, Melee Hacker, all unarmed perks, Big Brained, Heartless, Reinforced Spine, Lonesome Road

Implants: (All of them, but most importantly these:) Luck, Charisma, Intelligence, Sub-dermal Armor, Strength
 
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